Little Ben

Victoria is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster. It is named after Victoria Station, which is a major transport hub. The station was named after the nearby Victoria Street.The name is used to describe streets adjoining or nearly adjoining the station, including Victoria Street, Buckingham Palace Road, Wilton Road, Grosvenor Gardens, and Vauxhall Bridge Road. Victoria consists predominantly of commercial property and private and social housing, with retail uses along the main streets. The area contains one of the busiest transport interchanges in London and the United Kingdom, including the listed railway station and the underground station, as well as Terminus Place, which is a major hub for bus and taxi services. Victoria Coach Station, 900 yards (800 metres) southwest of the railway station, provides road-coach services to long-distance UK and continental destinations. Victoria Street runs on an east–west axis from Victoria station to Broad Sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. Cardinal Place, across the street from Westminster Cathedral, opened in 2006 and contains a selection of restaurants, banks and shops, including a Marks and Spencer store. Further along the street, there is a large House of Fraser department store (formerly the Army & Navy) opposite Westminster City Hall. At the Broad Sanctuary end is the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy building, the headquarters of Transport for London at Windsor House, and the former New Scotland Yard building (headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service from 1967 to 2016).

The Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station. The structure is categorised as a Grade II* listed building.

The Apollo Victoria Theatre is a West End theatre on Wilton Road in the Westminster district of London, across from London Victoria Station. (The theatre also has an entrance on Vauxhall Bridge Road.) Opened in 1930 as a cinema and variety theatre, the Apollo Victoria became a venue for musical theatre, beginning with The Sound of Music in 1981, and including the long-running Starlight Express, from 1984 to 2002. The theatre is currently the home of the musical Wicked, which has played at the venue since 27 September 2006.

Victoria bus station is a bus station outside London Victoria station. It is managed only by Transport for London. In 1970, work commenced on a substantial roof canopy. This was demolished in April 2003 as part of the station's refurbishment.Routes 38, 390 and 507 terminate within the bus station while others pass through. Many other routes pass by on adjoining streets but do not enter the bus station.

Portland House is a skyscraper in Westminster, London. It is 101 metres (331 ft) tall with 29 floors. The building was the central feature of the redevelopment of the six acres old Watney's Brewery site. The architects were Howard, Fairbairn & Partners, and the development took place from 1959 to 1963. Pevsner notes that the architectural form of Portland House was influenced by the Pirelli Tower (1955–58) in Milan by architect Gio Ponti. The development was known as Stag Place. Today the site is Cardinal Place. The building has two banks of lifts — the first serving the first up to the fifteenth floor, and the second the fifteenth floor upwards. Firms that have at one point occupied Portland House for office space include American Express, Crossrail, HomeAway UK, Owners Direct, Direct Ferries Orbus Software, Increase the Wedge, NetBooster, Somo Global, TradeDoubler, Wunder2, uSwitch, Upmystreet.com, Reef Television, Rentokil Initial, AkzoNobel, Monica Vinader and IWG. The building also once contained the head offices of British United Airways.The building is a five-minute walk from London Victoria station (rail and tube) and a ten-minute walk from Victoria Coach Station. The surrounding area was redeveloped between 2003 and 2005, with a new shopping and refreshments area called Cardinal Place. The building also has a gym in the basement.The building is part of the Cardinal Place Estate, which includes the shopping centre and development around the building. Retail establishments such as Marks & Spencer, Boots, Thorntons, Zara, Ha Ha Bar and Zizzi have taken retail space in the complex. The ground floor has a portico arrangement of pillars which reflect the octagonal cross-section of the building. The Portland House is substantially similar in design to the MetLife Building in New York City. The two buildings were under construction at the same time. As of June 2021, the building is entirely vacant, with the ground floor behind hoardings, pending renovation by Land Securities.

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. The office has lead responsibility for gender equality within the UK government, together with a responsibility to provide advice on all other forms of equality (including age, race, sexual orientation and disability) to other UK government departments. The unit is based at the Cabinet Office. Prior to April 2019, the GEO was led concurrently by Cabinet Secretaries at the Home Office, DFID and DfE. The day-to-day responsibility for policy on these issues was not transferred to GEO when it was created. The Equalities Office currently leads the Discrimination Law Review, which developed the Equality Act 2010 that replaced previous anti-discrimination legislation. The current minister responsible for GEO is Kemi Badenoch, who also serves as Secretary of State for International Trade in the Rishi Sunak government.

Verde is an office building at 10 Bressenden Place, formerly known as Eland House, in Westminster, London. It was originally designed by EPR Architects and built by Mowlem for Landsec, and although finally completed in 1998, staff of the former Department of the Environment had moved in during late 1995/early 1996. In 2014, the building was acquired by Tishman Speyer and redeveloped according to a design created by Aukett Swanke. It was then renamed Verde. The redeveloped building encompasses 282,000 square feet of office space across 10 floors, and includes a number of roof gardens.

John Lewis & Partners (formerly and commonly known as John Lewis) is a brand of high-end department stores operating throughout the United Kingdom, with concessions also located in the Republic of Ireland and Australia. The brand sells general merchandise as part of the employee-owned mutual organisation known as the John Lewis Partnership, the largest co-operative in the United Kingdom. It was created by Spedan Lewis, son of the founder, John Lewis, in 1929. From 1925 to 2022, the chain had a policy that it would always at least match a lower price offered by a national high street competitor; this pledge was known by the name "Never Knowingly Undersold".The first John Lewis store was opened in 1864 in Oxford Street, London, and there are now 35 stores throughout Great Britain. The first John Lewis concession in the Republic of Ireland opened in a Dublin Arnotts store in October 2016. In the same year, the first Australian John Lewis concession also opened.On 1 January 2008, the Oxford Street store was awarded a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II as "suppliers of haberdashery and household goods". John Lewis & Partners Reading is also the holder of a Royal Warrant from the Queen in 2007 as suppliers of household and fancy goods.The John Lewis Christmas television advert was first launched in 2007 and it has since become an annual tradition in British culture. It is considered as a sign that the countdown to Christmas has begun.

Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Queen), the main line station is a terminus of the Brighton Main Line to Gatwick Airport and Brighton and the Chatham Main Line to Ramsgate and Dover via Chatham. From the main lines, trains can connect to the Catford Loop Line, the Dartford Loop Line, and the Oxted line to East Grinstead and Uckfield. Southern operates most commuter and regional services to south London, Sussex and parts of east Surrey, while Southeastern operates trains to south-east London and Kent, alongside limited services operated by Thameslink. Gatwick Express trains run direct to Gatwick. The Underground station is on the Circle and District lines between Sloane Square and St James's Park, and the Victoria line between Pimlico and Green Park. The area around the station is an important interchange for other forms of transport: a local bus station is in the forecourt and Victoria Coach Station is nearby. Victoria was built to serve both the Brighton and Chatham Main Lines, and has always had a "split" feel of being two separate stations. The Brighton station opened in 1860 with the Chatham station following two years later. It replaced a temporary terminus at Pimlico, and construction involved building the Grosvenor Bridge over the River Thames. It became immediately popular as a London terminus, causing delays and requiring upgrades and rebuilding. It was well known for luxury Pullman train services and continental boat-train trips, and became a focal point for soldiers during World War I. Like other London termini, steam trains were phased out of Victoria by the 1960s, to be replaced by suburban electric and diesel multiple-unit services; all services from the station are currently operated using electric multiple units. Despite the end of international services following the opening of the Channel Tunnel, Victoria still remains an important London terminal station. The connected Underground station, in particular, suffered from overcrowding, until a major upgrade was completed in the late 2010s. The Gatwick Express service provides easy access between Central London and Gatwick Airport for international travellers.

41 Hotel or No. 41: A Red Carnation Hotel is a luxury hotel in London, England. It is located just south of Buckingham Palace along 41 Buckingham Palace Road.

Cardinal Place is a retail and office development in London, near Victoria Station and opposite Westminster Cathedral. The site consists of three buildings covering over a million square feet on Victoria Street next door to Portland House, and was designed by EPR Architects and built by Sir Robert McAlpine. The topping out ceremony was held in December 2004, and performed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Lord McAlpine, and Ian J. Henderson, outgoing chief executive of the site's developers Land Securities. The £200m development was built directly over the District & Circle line Underground tunnels which actually pass through the basement. The buildings rest on rubber shock absorbers to prevent vibrations from the passing trains. The project includes 550,000 square feet (51,000 m2) of office space and 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of retail. Tenants include Experian.

The Royal Mews is a mews, or collection of equestrian stables, of the British royal family. In London these stables and stable-hands' quarters have occupied two main sites in turn, being located at first on the north side of Charing Cross, and then (since the 1820s) within the grounds of Buckingham Palace. The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace includes an extensive display of royal carriages and other associated items, and is open to the public for much of the year. It is also a working part of the palace, where horses and people live and work, and where carriages and cars are in daily use supporting the work of the King as head of state.